Landing Pages and SEO
Landing Pages
Landing pages are web pages designed for a specific purpose. For the most part the primary goal of a landing page is to encourage a visitor to take an action such as request a quote or make a booking. Landing pages are goal orientated and should be designed to funnel visitors toward achieving that desired goal. However a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy is imperative to launch a successful landing page campaign. Let’s discuss the key components of such a strategy…
Template Design
The first step is to create a landing page template that will be designed in a goal orientated fashion. This template should be available in the content management system (CMS) from where the web admin can simply add a new landing page to the website and input the content accordingly. The design of the template should structured in an accessible format peppered with diverse content such as text and multi-media. In essence the landing page should guide the user to the integrated call to action (CTA) – e.g. contact button or sign up form.
SEO
The team here at Enhance web design carried out some detailed research into the surrounding SEO elements and best practices associated with landing pages. From our understanding there is no negative connotations associated with landing pages for SEO. However we would stress the landing page must be designed and mapped out optimally and the content must be relevant and engaging, as a high bounce rate on the landing pages will adversely affect the organic search performance of the overall website.
Keywords
In the world of SEO, landing pages are a key tool to capture long tail search queries. Therefore keyword generation and density are two key components of creating an effective landing page. So we would suggest incorporating distinct keywords throughout the on-page content, in the key headings and even match it up with the image and link anchor text. This combination will provide a strong foundation to attract the right users.
Link Building
It is important to ensure that a landing page is not a cul-de-sac so to speak. Both internal and external linkages are key from a navigation perspective and from a search engine perspective. Linking off to relevant internal and external relevant content will provide the user with a chance to extend their journey. Furthermore such links make the web page much more accessible to search engines.
Tracking
So you have put all this effort into creating landing pages and running several campaigns, how do you assess the performance of the landing pages and SEO drive? Well the great thing about landing pages is the extractable analytical data! Landing pages are created for a sole purpose therefore it is relatively easy to create a conversion goal associated with a landing page and derive key stats from the page activity.
Find out more…
If we have sparked your interest and you want to find out more how landing pages can work for SEO read this blog post on seomoz – ‘Landing Pages for SEO‘ by I, Brian